Saturday, January 7, 2017
Grow your business on Google Play with help from the new Playbook for Developers app
Grow your business on Google Play with help from the new Playbook for Developers app
Posted by Dom Elliott, the Google Play team
| Today, the Playbook for Developers mobile app is now generally available for Android devices. The app helps you stay up-to-date with the features and best practices to grow your business on Google Play. Thanks to all our beta testers over the last six weeks whose feedback helped us tweak and refine the app in preparation for launch. Heres how you read and watch content in the Playbook for Developers app:
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The app supports Android 5.0 and above. If youre on an older device, check out our ebook, The Secrets to App Success on Google Play. We will be adding and updating content in the app to help you stay up-to-date and grow your business. Get the Playbook for Developers app today and then give us your feedback. The app is also available in the following languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Deutsch, español (Latinoamérica), le français, português do Brasil, ti?ng Vi?t, ??????? ?????, ???, ?? (??), ?? (??), and ???.
This is the second app weve released for Google Play developers. Get the Google Play Developer Console app to review your apps performance statistics and financial data, get notified about your apps status and publishing changes, and read and reply to user reviews on the go.

Available link for download
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Grow your games business on Google Play Game parameters management video recording streaming ads and more
Grow your games business on Google Play Game parameters management video recording streaming ads and more
Posted by Morgan Dollard, Product Manager of Google Play Games

With mobile gamers across 190 countries, Google Play Games is made up of a vibrant and diverse gaming community. And these players are more engaged than ever. Over the past year, the number of games reaching over 1 million installs grew by 50 percent.
Today, at our annual Developer Day at the Game Developers Conference, we announced new platform and ads tools for developers, of all sizes reach, to reach this global audience and accelerate the growth of their games business. Check out below the full range of features that will help game developers build their apps, grow their user base, and earn more revenue.
Making Google Play Games better for players
In February, we introduced Gamer IDs so that anyone could create a gaming persona. We also simplified the sign-in process for Google Play Games so players could pick up playing their game more quickly. Were also working on product enhancements to make Play Games a little more social and fun, which will mean more engaged players whore playing your game for longer. One example is the launch of Gamer friends (coming soon!), where your players can add and interact with their friends from within the Google Play Games app (without needing a Google+ account).
Were also launching the Indie Corner, a new collection on Google Play, that will highlight amazing games built by indie developers. You can nominate your awesome indie game for inclusion at g.co/indiecornersubmission. Well pick the best games to showcase based on the quality of the experience and exemplary use of Google Play game services.
Grow your game with powerful new features from Google Play game services
In January, we added features to Player Analytics, the free reporting tool of Google Play game services, which helps you understand how players are progressing, spending and churning. Today, we previewed some upcoming new tools that would be available in the coming months, including:
- Game parameters management: With game parameters management, you will be able to update gameplay and game economy parameters without the need for APK changes or resubmitting your app. Youll be able to optimize virtual goods and currencies from the Developer Console or the Google Play Developer API.

- Video Recording API: You will be able to easily add video recording to your app and let users share their videos with their friends and on YouTube in a few simple steps. We are also adding live streaming functionality to allow your fans to broadcast their gameplay experiences in real time on YouTube.

- Predictive Analytics: The Player Stats API now has Predictive Analytics to help you identify which groups of players are likely to spend or churn, and we are adding new predictions for how much a player is likely to spend within 30 days and the probability that a player is a high spender. This allows you to tailor experiences for these players to try to increase their spend or engagement. Learn more about the Player Stats API.

New ad formats and targeting to find, keep and monetize high-quality gamers
Promoting your game and growing your audience is important, but its just as important to reach the right audience for your game, the players who want to open the game again and again. Thats why today weve unveiled new features that make it simpler to reach the right audience at scale.
- Search Trial Run Ads: In the next few weeks, well launch a new way for users to try your game out when they do a search for games on Google through a new ad format, Search Trial Run Ads. After tapping Try now, an individual can play your game for up to 10 minutes, and then download the game in full if they choose. These ads will appear to smartphone users on WiFi. Using this format, you can drive qualified users who are likely to stay engaged with your game after install.

- Portrait Video Ads: More than 80% of video ad views in mobile apps on the Google Display Network are from devices held vertically, but often these videos are created for landscape viewing. Over the next few weeks, were launching Portrait Video Ads for a full-screen, immersive portrait video experience. Developers have seen significant improvement in both click-through and conversion rates, resulting in lower cost per install and more installs.
- Active User Targeting for Games: In the coming weeks, were rolling out a new type of targeting for Android apps that allows you to show ads to users who have spent more than 30 minutes playing games, or who have played a Google Play Games integrated game, in the last 30 days.
Earn more revenue in your game with AdMob
AdMob helps game developers around the world maximize revenue through in-app advertising. At GDC, we also announced a new way to help you earn more through AdMob Mediation. Rewarded advertising is a popular form of game monetization -- users are given the choice to engage with ads in exchange for an in-app reward. AdMob Mediation will enable you to easily monetize your apps with rewarded video ads from a number of ad providers. Supported networks and platforms include AdColony, AppLovin, Chartboost, Fyber, Upsight and Vungle, with more being added all the time.
You can learn more about this, and all our ads announcements on the Inside AdWords blog.
This is just the start of what weve got planned for 2016. We hope you can make use of these tools to improve your game, engage your audience, and grow your business and revenue.
Available link for download
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Google I O 2016 Develop Grow Earn
Google I O 2016 Develop Grow Earn
Earlier today, we kicked off our 10-year celebration of hosting developer events with Google I/O in front of over 7,000 developers at Shoreline Amphitheatre, and with millions of other viewers on the I/O live stream around the world. During the keynote, we had a number of announcements that featured tools for Android, iOS, and mobile Web developers, showcased the power of machine learning for delivering better user experiences, and introduced a previewed platform for high quality, mobile virtual reality.
And over the next three days at the festival, well continue to focus on things that matter to you: Develop, to build high quality apps; Grow & Earn, to find high quality users, increase user engagement and create successful businesses; and Whats Next, a look at new platforms for future growth.
Develop, Grow & Earn with Firebase
Those core themes are best represented in our launch of Firebase. As shared during the keynote, weve significantly expanded Firebase beyond a mobile backend to include brand new features, like mobile analytics, growth tools, and crash reporting. Firebase is now a suite of 15 features and integrations designed to help you develop your app, grow a user base and earn money. At the heart of the suite is a new mobile analytics tool we built from the ground up called Firebase Analytics. Available for free and unlimited usage, Firebase Analytics is inspired by our decade-long experience running Google Analytics, but designed specifically for the unique needs of apps.Lets also take a closer look at the other major developer news at I/O:
Develop
- Android N Developer Preview 3 Get a look at the next release of Android N focused on performance, productivity and security. Even better, Android N is now ready to test on primary phones or tablets.
- Android VR A rework of the entire Android stack in N to tailor it to provide high quality mobile VR experiences.
- Android Studio 2.2 Preview Our new preview focuses on speed, smarts, and Android platform support. This major update includes a completely rewritten, feature-rich Layout Designer.
- Android Wear 2.0: A developer preview of the biggest platform update since we launched Android Wear two years ago. It includes updated design guidelines and APIs that make the watch even more useful for watch faces, messaging, and fitness. Apps on the watch can now be standalone, with direct network access to the cloud.
- Recording APIs: enables Android TV app developers and content providers to bring recording functionality to live channels.
- Google Play services 9.0 In addition to Firebase, the next release includes new API updates for Ads, Nearby and Play Games services.
- Android Pay APIs A new set of tools that includes support for mobile web, Instant Apps, Save to Android Pay and an API for issuers. Well have more to share during the session Android Pay everywhere: New developments later today at 2:00 PM PT Stage 1 Hercules.
- Progressive Web Apps A new set of capabilities to build app-like mobile websites that work reliably on the worst network connections and can send notifications to re-engage users.
- Credentials API The latest version of Chrome now supports the Credential Management API, allowing sites to interact with the browsers credential manager to improve the sign in experience for users. The API enables users to sign in with one tap and lets them automatically sign back in when returning to the site.
- Accelerated Mobile Pages Check out the AMP project, an open source initiative that is helping publishers create mobile-optimized content once and have it load instantly everywhere.
Grow & Earn
- Reach a global audience on Google Play New and powerful tools to help you grow your business: discover and join beta tests from the Play Store (including a new Early Access section), discover collections of complementary apps to help users solve complex tasks, see how your app runs on real devices with a new pre-launch report, get insights and benchmarks for reviews and user acquisition, monitor your app stats and get notifications when your updates are live with the new Play Console app, and more.
- Android Instant Apps With Android Instant Apps, users can open your app simply by tapping on a link, even if they dont have the app installed. Instant Apps is compatible with Android Jelly Bean and later, reaching over a billion users. Were working with a small set of developers now, and well be gradually expanding access.
- Building for billions New resources to help you optimize your app and get your business ready to serve over a billion Android users around the world.
- Universal App Campaigns Last year, we introduced Universal App Campaigns as a simple and powerful way to surface apps to the billions of users across Google Play, Search, YouTube, and the Google Display Network. Were building on this success by expanding onto iOS and by helping developers use insights to optimize for lifetime value. See our new apps best practices.
Whats Next
- Awareness API: Well be previewing a new, unified sensing platform that enables apps to be aware of all aspects of a users context, while managing system health for you. Learn more at the "Introducing Awareness API: an easy way to make your apps context aware" session later today at 3:00 PM PT in Stage 5 Libra.
- Daydream Well have more to share on how developers can start building Daydream apps during the VR at Google session tomorrow (May 19) at 9:00 AM PT in the Amphitheatre and livestreamed.
- Chromebooks Hear from the team firsthand whats new with Chromebooks tomorrow (May 19) at 11:00 AM PT in Stage 8 Crater.
- The Mobile Web Well share what were doing to improve the mobile web experience for developers and users tomorrow (May 19) at 2:00 PM PT in the Amphitheatre.
Available link for download
